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NXT 2015 - Q4


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I think he's more likely to be Bo Dallas v2. Not a total fail, but limited on how far it can go.

 

Have to disagree, Rick Martel made it work and while I'll grant he was considerably better in the ring than Tyler, Tyler has it all over him in every other significant area. And while he's not a top-level good worker yet, he's becoming a very smart one, (he knows his limitations and more importantly, those of his opponent and he's being doing a great job of getting the most he can out of people). You have to be pretty smart to make what's-his-name, the Oompa-Loompa guy, look credible when you tower over him by half a foot.

 

 

It isn't that Breeze doesn't have the skills to be more than Adam Rose.  I agree with everything you said, I just don't think they'll give him that shot.

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Seeing that essay and reading 11 year old Bayley refer to it as WWE...it's amazing that there are people working for the company who weren't around or barely remember it being called WWF.  Now I feel old as fuck.

How old are you?

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Finn Balor's entrance posing with his leather jacket reminds me of Alex Wright. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Alex Wright, evil German dance fiend is one of my all-time favorite gimmicks. At one point, he said on Nitro: "WILL YOU LOOK AT THESE PANTS, MEAN GENE! TELL ME YOU LOVE MY PANTS!" So hilarious.

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Also: Dana rules at everything except executing moves. The segment with Regal was awesome, where she went from so cocky and ridiculous ("High-Heena") to scared out of her mind. Great wrestling comedy acting right there. She's also a really good in-ring trash-talker and taunter. She just has to become somewhat competent in the ring to shine.

Evil Emma is great. I love that she's still aloof like she was as a face, but this time so dismissive and rude about it. Like as a face, she was just absentminded aloof and charming. Everyone has a friend like that. But her heel aloofness is like that j-o in your college honors program who eats lunch with faculty.

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So Asuka needs a big debut win, Dana is the top female heel in NXT, Bayley has no one to feud with post-Takeover. I wonder if they're gonna hotshot Bayley/Asuka in London or go full speed ahead and put the undefeated* Eva Marie vs. Bayley in London

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They have two months to get to the next challenger for Bailey (if she retains that is) Dana could be built back up in the that time, or Evil Emma could find her way into a title match pretty easily with her history with Bailey and her winning the 4 way in Brooklyn, Eva would be a possibility as would a heel turn for Asuka but I don't know if they'd turn her that fast especially with Finn turning soon or so it seems.

 

In relation to Finn turning I wonder if that could be related to the Bullet Club tweet asking what was nxt for them. Could WWE be creating a working talent exchange type deal with NJPW and we get the Bullet Club in NXT that would be pretty wild and so unexpected and strange.

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Dana seems like such a weird choice for Asuka's first match, just because it seems like there's some weird miscue or super awkward transition in every Dana match. (Did you see how long it took her to get back on track with Royce after the botch last night? Felt like an eternity.) She's not her person I would pick for a big debut match where I want everything to go clean and smooth.

Emma would seem like the much more logical choice, especially since they don't seem to have any plans for moving her up the card and a loss wouldn't hurt her.

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41 amazing years, my friend

42 here...I'll see you in the home. I'll bring my DVDs...

 

 

I'm 36. We can all watch my VHS copy of The Great American Bash 1987

 

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I have that one AND the '87 Crocket Cup. It's on. Warm up the VCR, I'll have the nurses warm up some low sodium pop corn.

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I wonder if the Asuka/Dana match is a fan service match. Yeah it would be fun to watch Asuka wrestle Evil Emma but if the match is booked like a complete squash I could see Asuka squashing Dana more appealing to the Full Sail crowd than a competitive squash over Evil Emma.

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The opening tag match went off in a very weird direction where the ending transition from the Enzo Launcher to the finish felt completely fake and hokey.  Now it might be because the match was clipped to death but I don't think Samoa Joe currently has the gravitas to pull off the 'pick the guy up during the kick out' move.  He doesn't have the snap of power like a Brock Lesnar or Mark Henry to pull that out.  Then Enzo (who we didn't see take any damage) has to get carried around and set up for the Muscle Buster without any resistance.  It didn't work.  

 

Dana is getting so good at the secondary stuff and is becoming a highlight of the show as she blunders around and gets hoisted by her own petard.  She's a great old school dummy heel who doesn't know when she's being outsmarted.  For a person of her experience, I think she filled in around the botch fairly well going for covers until Kicky McGee recovered.  

 

Crews wrestles with zero aggression and I think that is his greatest weakness.  He executes well and everything, but I feel he is more trying to be pretty than trying to do damage.  I think he's going for form rather than substance.  It feels artificial in a way.  Gargano was impressive to me and feels like one to watch but he needs a character hook to take the next step.  He could avoid some of the pointless flourishes like the modification to the abdominal stretch but a lot of his move set is on point and appropriate.

 

Ciampa on the other part feels like he's working like he's bigger than he is.  He's about the same size as Breeze who ain't big but works like a 230-240 pound striker.  I think that can work but he's going to run into trouble when he tries to work someone like Russev or Big E.  Breeze seemed to be off to me as he's at his best working around other people's signature stuff which Ciampa doesn't have right now.  I think he was trying to work a good match, but I don't know if Ciampo has the buy in from the crowd to make it work.  The  Tomikaze is a good addition to his move set since it requires no power to apply and he'll be able to slap it on anyone. 

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The commentators dodging the issue of what the WWE-canon name for that move is was kind of annoying given how much it fits for Breeze

 

Also why are they calling the Takeover an Iron Man match over and over? Does someone else have the rights to Iron Woman? You'd have thought having the rights to "Iron Man" was more of a problem ("actually some comics company has the rights to that title so we're gonna call it Iron Man 2...actually there's a movie that has the rights to that title so we're gonna call it Iran Man 2")

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I mean I guess you could make the argument that if they called it an Iron Woman match that you are gendering the match unnecessarily (like a Lumber "Jill" match).  I don't see the point personally. 

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I mean I guess you could make the argument that if they called it an Iron Woman match that you are gendering the match unnecessarily (like a Lumber "Jill" match).  I don't see the point personally. 

 

I would have liked Sasha or Bayley to come out and say if Bret vs HBK was an Ironman match, that's what they want to call it.  But I'm not too hung up on what the stip is called.

 

BTW, how would you book a Sasha victory?  Or a post-Takeover if Sasha wins.

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In my rewatch of the NXT catalog to see the Emmalution Evolution of Sasha Banks, I've come across the April 2, 2014 show.  Her offence is still pretty generic and she's using some over the top heel tactics, mixed in with her awesome heel tactics that she's still developing.  She's booked way below Charlotte at this point, but William Regal has an incredibly prescient comment.  He says, "I will go on record as saying that Sasha Banks is the hidden gem here in NXT.  She's somebody that will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come."

You're almost to the tournament, which IMO is where Sasha changed. In fact I would say the entire division stepped it up a notch from there, but Sasha most of all. I've wondered if it is a coincidence that this is also when Drake Younger appeared as a ref.

 

 

In the tourney, she broke out the Bank Statement against Bayley and the double knees in the corner against Natalya, first time I think she did either of those on TV.  Still relying heavily on those shrieking double fist and head smashing attacks.  Anticipating the breakup of the BFFs now.  Also, Alexa Bliss looked really good in her debut against Alicia Fox, who also looked really good.  Alexa's debut promo had Heel Bliss all over it, even as she was trying to babyface it up.

 

I'm now in July and the Boss is almost there.  The BBFs are done.  She had a match against Alexa Bliss on the 7/17/14 show where she had no diva slaps at all.  Regal is still putting over huge, saying she's a future champion during the match.

 

In other thoughts, Angelo Dawkins has some Kevin McHale arms.  I can't believe how strong Mojo's ass-based offense is booked.  Bayley and Sami had pretty cool themes that got replaced by new themes that just fit them better.  Also during this time was the legendary Bayley vs Eva Marie match.  Heel announcer Byron Saxton is weird. Jason Jordan's career started looking up after he cut that fro.

 

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